Q&A with Swaab's new building and construction partner, Mark Glynn

Why did you choose Swaab?

When I first met with Mary Digiglio, Swaab’s man­ag­ing part­ner and Helen Kow­al, part­ner con­struc­tion and stra­ta and there­after the broad­er Swaab lead­er­ship group, I felt an imme­di­ate align­ment with their val­ues and com­mit­ment to client service.

Our moral com­pass­es were aligned, and this was the most impor­tant fac­tor in my deci­sion to join the Swaab team.

From a con­struc­tion per­spec­tive, my due dili­gence iden­ti­fied that Swaab’s con­struc­tion team has earned a lead­ing and well-respect­ed posi­tion in the con­struc­tion legal ser­vices mar­ket. This fur­ther drew me to Swaab. 

What do you bring to the firm Mark? 

I am a con­struc­tion law expert. I spe­cialise in front-end con­struc­tion law, which includes:

• project pro­cure­ment and project deliv­ery method advice
• project and relat­ed ser­vices con­tract documentation
• project and con­tract administration
• res­o­lu­tion of dis­putes in a com­mer­cial and cost effec­tive and hope­ful­ly rela­tion­ship pre­serv­ing way

I believe my exper­tise and expe­ri­ence will broad­en and deep­en the Swaab ser­vice offer­ing, aid­ing and advis­ing our clients, up and down the con­tract­ing chain, in the procur­ing and deliv­er­ing of suc­cess­ful con­struc­tion projects in a com­pet­i­tive and com­plex yet excit­ing and reward­ing industry. 

My expe­ri­ence includes assist­ing with deliv­ery of res­i­den­tial, com­mer­cial, indus­tri­al, health and pur­pose-built stu­dent accom­mo­da­tion projects includ­ing with­in indus­try sec­tors in which Swaab’s clients oper­ate such as res­i­den­tial and urban devel­op­ment, office fit out, health­care and aged care.

I have also assist­ed financiers and insol­ven­cy prac­ti­tion­ers with dis­tressed devel­op­ment projects. 

How does your exper­tise and expe­ri­ence help clients? 

Pri­or to law I worked as an Insol­ven­cy Accoun­tant and then moved into senior com­mer­cial roles with­in the indus­tri­al build­ing prod­ucts indus­try. In 2009 I was admit­ted as solic­i­tor of Supreme Court of New South Wales and so began my legal career in law. 

With over fif­teen years of legal expe­ri­ence, I have pro­vid­ed legal guid­ance and sup­port to clients through­out the con­struc­tion project life­cy­cle, from assist­ing with project pro­cure­ment and deliv­ery method, con­tract draft­ing and nego­ti­a­tion to dis­pute res­o­lu­tion and reg­u­la­to­ry com­pli­ance. Pro­tect­ing clients’ legal and finan­cial inter­ests by ensur­ing con­tracts are clear, enforce­able, and aligned with indus­try best prac­tices giv­ing the project the best chance of success. 

Con­tracts with a dis­pro­por­tion­ate or inap­pro­pri­ate allo­ca­tion of risk are inef­fi­cient, cost­ly and will invari­ably have dis­as­trous out­comes. Such con­tracts do not serve the project or the project stakeholders. 

The con­struc­tion indus­try is char­ac­terised by much law and ever evolv­ing reg­u­la­tion espe­cial­ly in NSW with the sig­nif­i­cant reg­u­la­to­ry reform cur­rent­ly being dri­ven by the NSW Gov­ern­ment and the NSW Build­ing Com­mis­sion. Stay­ing on top of these reforms is absolute­ly essential. 

What is your view of the cur­rent state of the market?

The build­ing and con­struc­tion indus­try is a sig­nif­i­cant and com­plex indus­try, where the risks are both high and reward­ing and the land­scape is for­ev­er chang­ing. The indus­try is cur­rent­ly char­ac­terised by: 

• high costs of construction
• con­tin­u­ing and increas­ing con­struc­tion relat­ed insolvencies
• labour and skill shortages
• a chron­ic short­age in housing
• increased reg­u­la­tion in response to recent sig­nif­i­cant defects and low con­sumer con­fi­dence in the com­plet­ed built form.

Thank you Mark and wel­come aboard!

Mark and the broad­er Swaab projects team can assist both devel­op­er and con­trac­tor clients suc­cess­ful­ly deliv­er their projects in an indus­try where the risks and the rewards can be both high and rewarding.